The Chattanooga Mocs men’s golf team got off to a slow start tonight. If it were Election Day, coach Mark Guhne might have started crafting the concession speech. Instead, his Mocs bowed their backs and fought to the finish.
“I knew we got off to a rough start, but I didn’t know how bad until I saw the scores at the turn,” Guhne said. “We were way back. I gotta hand it to them, they never quit.”
Chattanooga was 10-over at the turn with no one under par. That’s when Liam Johnston struck. He flipped a 2-over round to 2 under playing three-hole stretch (13-15) birdie-birdie-eagle. He finished with three straight pars to shoot 70. That gives him a two-day total of even-par 144.
“When those three holes happened, I went around and told all the guys about it,” Guhne shared. “We’re back in this thing, go hard and finish off a good round. We did that and gave ourselves a chance to come out tomorrow, fight and see what happens.”
He was not alone. Brooks Thomas went out in 41 (+5), but came in 2 under on the back side for a 75 (+3). The duo was joined by Wes Gosselin (72) and Andrew Weathers (76) for the 5-over par 293. The Mocs’ 584 is nine behind leader ETSU (575) and three shy of second-place UNCG (581).
“Brooks birdied eight and then hit a great shot over the flag on nine, got a bad break and made double,” Guhne added. “For him to fight back and do what he did on the back side, I’m really proud of him. He’s one of the reasons we have a chance tomorrow.”
Gosselin is tied for seventh at 1 under (143), one ahead of Johnston who is tied for ninth at even. Western Carolina’s J.T. Poston is the leader at 8 under (136). Poston is two clear of ETSU’s Adrian Meronk in second at 138 (-6).
The Mocs final 18 starts at 8:50 a.m., with ETSU and UNCG alongside. Thomas is first up followed by Scott (9:00). Weathers (9:10), Johnston (9:20) and Gosselin (9:30). Click the live scoring link above for scoring and tee times. Follow @GoMocsMGLF on twitter for updates from the course.